Williams F1 new-comer Alex Albon suggests to be one of the most ‘unprepared driver’ to make way into F1
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Alex Albon
Alex Albon the former Toro Rosso, RedBull driver, and now a Williams driver for the 2022 Formula1 season has recently shed light on his sudden entry into Formula1 back in 2019.
It has been stated in racingnews365 that Alex Albon feels that “he was one of the most unprepared drivers ever” when he got his chance in Formul1.
Alex was competing in Formula2 when the F1 opportunity with RedBull sister team Toro Rosso[AlphaTauri] suddenly came knocking on his doors because at that time he had signed a contract to race in Formula E with Nissan e, dams. In Alex Albon’s opinion, the sudden change in plans unfolded very quickly and while talking about it he said “It happened very last minute.”
“I don’t want to go into details about how the whole thing kind of happened. But it was a tricky one because, obviously, with Nissan tied up and everything like that, it didn’t make it as easy as I wish it had been, to switch from Formula E to Formula 1.
“Obviously, as a driver my age, I have always wanted to be in Formula 1. That’s everyone’s goal [from] being a kid. But yeah, we just had to find a deal, and once the deal was sorted, that was it.”
Alex Albon on coming straight into F1 without doing a test day
Alex Albon was fast-tracked into Formula1 during 2019 and given the speed at which things started happening for him it took Albon some time to get to grips with everything that was happening around him.
While talking about his switch from F2 to F1 Albon said “It was such a quick process.”
“And at no point until kind of late Russia [towards the end of the F2 season], had I ever thought F1 was possible because I spent so long [having] never been part of a program, never been really approached by a program, never kind of having this opportunity.”
“And then suddenly, literally, at the last two races of my Formula 2 career, I got this opportunity and I was in F1.”
Alex feels given the speed at which things panned out for him, he didn’t get enough time to prepare himself for F1 especially given his lack of testing for RedBull.
“Because I think everyone’s done testing before they arrive into F1, but my first test was literally the day one of Barcelona winter testing, and that was it. And I spun! I spun straightaway. I spun in Turn 4.” said Albon.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, what have I got myself into?”
Alex was promoted from Toro Rosso to the main RedBull team in his debut season because of Pierre Gasly’s struggles at RedBull. He partnered with Max Verstappen for the whole of the 2020 season and was replaced by Sergio Perez for the 2021 season.
In his season off from Formula1 Albon was RedBull’s test driver but for the 2022 season, he has got a seat at the Williams Formula1 team.
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)